A blog site for the anthology, A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 edited by Mark Pirie; foreword by Don Neely (HeadworX Publishers, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010). The blog features reviews and commentary on the book as well as New Zealand cricket poetry, reviews of New Zealand cricket books and other related material. The book's cover is by UK cricket painter Jocelyn Galsworthy.

Friday, August 12, 2011

David Mitchell (1940-2011), well-known New Zealand poet, performer, and cricketer, died in June this year. I’ve written a tribute for him on the Poetry Archive website and another Tingling Catch contributor, Michael O'Leary, has written a personal memoir for David on Beattie’s Book Blog.

David’s poem ‘gasometer/ ponsonby’ in A Tingling Catch (a cricket ballad focusing on some hardened meths drinkers on the boundary) was one of the most mentioned poems in reviews of the book. Terry Locke's favourite poem was Mitchell's and he noted further in English in Aotearoa that: ‘Mitchell has quite a presence in this book. He is the most significant cricketer/poet in our little pantheon.’ Michael Morrissey also praised David’s poem in Investigate as‘a vivid exploration of what’s going on just wide of the field’. Ron Riddell’s poem for David Mitchell as a poet/cricketer also featured in the Winter/Spring 2011 New Zealand Cricket Museum Newsletter. It’s true to say David was a significant New Zealand poet/cricketer. To my knowledge we haven’t had any international poet/cricketers in New Zealand. In England poet/cricketers like bowler John Snow or Hubert Doggart represented England at Test level. David played senior club cricket, however, at a high level and opened the batting. I know that J H E Schroder, Harry Ricketts, Robert J Pope and Brian Turner also played senior club cricket at a good level. I did not see David bat but New Zealand captain John Reid in the 1950s regarded him as one of five outstanding schoolboy cricketers while at WellingtonCollege. David was an all-rounder and played mostly for the Grafton Club in Auckland until 2002 aged 62. His biographers Martin Edmond and Nigel Roberts note (in Steal Away Boy: The Selected Poems of David Mitchell, Auckland University Press, 2010): ‘Mitchell once took a hatrick bowling his little floaters on the Devonport #2 ground to win the game for North Shore: off the last three balls of the last over of the last match of his last season in Auckland.’ David’s penultimate ball was described as a ‘geometric figure of mythical significance’. Lovely.

David’s friend Ron Riddell also wrote a recent poem called ‘The Day Room’ which he kindly sent in to share here in memory of David:

Thursday, August 11, 2011

A reminder that the annual Cricket Poetry Award deadline in Australia looms: 31 August 2011. Get your entries in now along with your entry fee of $A20.00. Check out the official website for full details and conditions of entry: http://www.cricketartprize.org/cricket-poetry-award/

This year’s theme is social cricket, beach cricket and club cricket.

Here’s an extract from last year’s winner, ‘Gentleman Jim’, by Matt Young:

He brings a certain dignity
Exudes a certain charm
He works with an integrity
No fuss and no alarm
A vestige of the golden age
He has those austere looks
Like timeless art and Shakespeare’s plays
Or well thumbed fav’rite books
His essence is humanity

…

And every summer Sat’day sees
Old Jim out at the ground
Impartial as the summer breeze
And judgment always sound
And every player loves old Jim
Respecting his good name
And for his passion they thank him
This doyen of the game

Monday, August 1, 2011

Another book I picked up at the recent Downtown Community Ministry Book Fair in Wellington is well-known New Zealand playwright Bruce Mason’s book of songs and parodies, We Don’t Want Your Sort Here (1963). Mason (1921-82) is the author of the classic New Zealand play, The End of the Golden Weather. I hadn't come across the book before. His satirical book, his only book of verse, certainly serves as a reminder of the ‘good old, bad old days of Kiwi culture’, however, it’s still a lively read.

One of the satires concerns English cricketer and former Governor-General of New Zealand, Charles Lyttelton (1909-1977), the 10th Viscount Cobham. Cobham played for Worcestershire and MCC and scored over 3,000 First Class runs, including a top score of 162 vs. Leicestershire in 1938. He played cricket between 1932 and 1961. By most accounts he was a popular Governor-General and was friends with the New Zealand cricketers of the period, for instance a number of "the '49ers" like Sutcliffe, Wallace, Donnelly and Reid played for Cobham's Governor-General's XI against MCC, a memorable match of the 1961 season.

If you’re a regular at book fairs in Wellington, you can still spot Lord Cobham’s Speeches (1962). The front cover features Viscount Cobham batting at No. 10 for his Governor-General’s XI and launching a shot down the ground for six at EdenPark, Auckland. Like Merv Wallace, it was Cobham's last First Class match and he made a surprising 44. Cobham in that photo seems to like attacking shots. Well, here’s a quick delivery from Mason which I suspect he might leave. It seems Mason took a note of Cobham’s dislike of abstract art and thought to send up Cobham’s traditional taste a little. It’s a light-hearted piece which does raise salient points about the arrival of modern and modernist art and literature in New Zealand:

(Sources: Wikipedia; We Don’t Want Your Sort Here by Bruce Mason (Auckland/Hamilton: Paul’s Book Arcade, 1963); Merv Wallace: A Cricket Master by Joseph Romanos (Joel Publishing, Wellington, 2000); and Lord Cobham’s speeches: a selection from the speeches made by the Rt. Hon. the Viscount Cobham, G.C.M.G., T.D., during his term of office as Governor-General of New Zealand, 1957-1962, edited by O.S. Hintz (Auckland: Wilson and Horton, 1962).

About Me

Mark Pirie is an internationally published New Zealand poet, anthologist, literary critic, writer and publisher with a special interest in cricket poetry. In 2010 he edited and published 'A Tingling Catch': A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009. Mark's previous anthology of New Zealand Science Fiction poetry, co-edited with Tim Jones and published by IP, Brisbane, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work 2010. His publishing company is HeadworX Publishers: http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz As a publisher and author he has over 100 titles listed in the National Library of New Zealand. His website is www.markpirie.com His other interests are popular music. In 2010 he helped co-organise the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA). Web site: http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com